Buddhist Wisdom for Today
Quotes and Teachings from the world of Buddhism and beyond, updated each weekday
Why do we recite Amitabha’s name? It is to receive the Buddha’s salvation, to break free from the cycle of birth and death, and to realize our wisdom Buddha nature. — Master Huijing. 17 May 2024
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- It’s not a terrible thing that we feel fear when faced with the unknown. It is part of being alive, something we all share. We react against the possibility of loneliness, of death, of not having anything to hold on to. Fear is a natural reaction to moving closer to the truth. — Pema Chödron. 10 May 2024
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- When seeing, hearing, or sensing something and considering it as the only thing that can bring comfort and advantage to self, one is always inclined to get caught in it and rule out everything else as inferior. Caught in one’s view and considering all other views as inferior—this attitude is considered by the wise as bondage, as the absence of freedom. A good practitioner is never too quick to believe what is seen, heard, and sensed, including rules and rites. — Paramatthaka Sutta. 9 May 2024
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- I vow to go to Amitabha’s Land of Peace and Joy. And I will return to the defiled lands to deliver both human and celestial beings. I wish for my compassion to be unlimited and boundless. So that I will be able to fully repay the grace of kindness for many eons. — Vow to Be Reborn in The Land of Peace and Joy. 8 May 2024
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- Practitioners sometimes endure long periods when their practice appears to have no effect on what seem to be particularly stubborn obstacles, and as a result assume their practice is not working. But they are wrong. With hindsight, they come to realize that the “obstacle” they so desperately wanted to eradicate was actually the best thing that ever happened them. — Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche. 7 May 2024
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- Wisdom is the clear seeing of the impermanent, conditioned nature of all phenomena, knowing that whatever arises has the nature to cease. When we see this impermanence deeply, we no longer cling; and when we no longer cling, we come to the end of suffering. — Joseph Goldstein. 6 May 2024
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- The near enemy of love is attachment. Attachment masquerades as love. It says, I will love this person because I need them. Or, I’ll love you if you’ll love me back. I’ll love you, but only if you will be the way I want. This isn’t love at all, it is attachment, and attachment is rigid, it is very different from love. — Jack Kornfield. 3 May 2024
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- Meditation is experiencing buddhahood within oneself. Compassion is radiating the fragrance of that buddhahood in all directions, for the benefit of all. — Ven. Bhikkhu Sanghasena. 2 May 2024
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- A single meditation cushion, and one is completely protected, Earth may crumble, heaven collapse—but here one is at peace. Sacred titles and worldly fame: both fade away in the sitting, and a great chiliocosm assembles on the tip of a feather. — Chan Master Zhiyuan Xinggang (1597–1654). 30 April 2024
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- The only way to actually abandon or eradicate the kleshas is to see their nature. Therefore, in order to abandon the kleshas, we must cultivate the prajna or discernment which is able to see the nature of those kleshas. If their nature is seen, they will disappear by themselves without having to be chased away or destroyed by any other means. — Thrangu Rinpoche. 29 April 2024
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- The person who lives too long in negativity becomes so attached to it, they become it. I am the victim. I am the abused. I am the person who suffered such a tragedy. And because they get so attached to it, even though it’s painful, they will not want to leave. — Ajahn Brahm. 26 April 2024
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- Do not encumber your mind with useless thoughts. What good is it to brood over the past and fret about the future? Dwell in the simplicity of the present moment. Live in harmony with the dharma. Make it the heart of your life and experience. Be the master of your own destiny. ― Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. 25 April 2024
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- There is no other way to reach enlightenment than by recognizing buddha-nature and attaining stability in it. The buddhas of the past did that, and the present-day practitioners who will be the buddhas of the future will do so by recognizing their own nature and attaining stability in it. There is no other way. Nobody else can accomplish enlightenment for us or pull us into liberation. It is completely up to ourselves. — Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche. 24 April 2024
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- The noble disciple parts with desire and bad and unskillful things. With perception and examination, this seclusion produces joy and happiness, and he accomplishes and dwells in the first dhyāna. This is called the first progressive mental state acquired by the noble disciple, which is easy and not difficult to attain. — The Buddha, Madhyama Āgama. 23 April 2024
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- The nature of mind is free, yet we are binding it every minute. That is the problem: we want it to be free, but we won’t let it be free. — Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche. 22 April 2024
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- Every appearance and every event are the mind’s miraculous display. In the spacious expanse, I see nothing to fear. It is just reflexive radiance of mind’s clear light, and nothing else. Hence there’s no reason to react. All activity is my adornment. Therefore, better to rest silently in meditative absorption. — Yeshe Tsogyal. 19 April 2024
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- Our normal tendency is to feel dissatisfied and to criticize our body, speech, and mind: my body is out of shape; my voice is unpleasant; my mind is confused. We are so caught up in this pointless, neurotic habit of criticism that we disparage others as well as ourselves. This is extremely damaging. — Lama Thubten Yeshe. 18 April 2024
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- Making the mind strong and making the body strong are not the same. To make the body strong we have to exercise it, to push it, in order to make it strong, but to make the mind strong means to make it peaceful, not to go thinking of this and that. For most of us the mind has never been peaceful, it has never had the energy of samādhi, so we must establish it within a boundary. We sit in meditation, staying with the “one who knows.” — Ajahn Chah. 17 April 2024
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- Oh snail, Climb Mt. Fuji, But slowly, slowly! — Issa Kobayashi. 16 April 2024
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- As long as the mind uses consciousness as the self-activity, time comes into being with all its miseries, with all its conflicts, with all its mischiefs, its purposive deceptions; and it is only when the mind, understanding this total process, ceases, that love will be. You may call it love or give it some other names; what name you give is of no consequence. — Jiddu Krishnamurti. 15 April 2024
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- The root of Dharma is your mind. Tame it and you’re practicing Dharma. To practice Dharma is to tame your mind, And when you tame it, then you will be free! — Dudjom Rinpoche. 12 April 2024
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- You probably received a college degree that you spent years working for, and you thought that happiness would be possible after you got it. But that was not true, because after getting the degree and finding a job, you continued to suffer. You have to realize that happiness is not something you find at the end of the road. You have to understand that it is here, now. — Thich Nhat Hanh. 11 April 2024
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- By the power of craving for existence and ignorance, Beings take birth as humans, gods, or in the three lower realms. In their ignorance they continuously circle among these five existences, Like the spinning of a potter’s wheel. — The Buddha, Lalitavistara Sutra 13.80. 10 April 2024
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- Water in a cup will eventually dry up; but if it enters the sea, it will have the same flavor as the sea. Our lives are turbid, marked by impermanence; but if we entrust ourselves to Amitabha Buddha, we gain immeasurable life, free from reincarnation, and possess the same lifespan as Amitabha Buddha. Never born and never perishing, abiding throughout the Three Time Frames (past, present, and future). — Master Dao’chuo. 9 April 2024
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- If I am good to someone, he or she will learn goodness and, in turn, will be good to others. If I am not good, he or she will harbor hatred and resentment and will, in turn, pass it on to others. If the world is not good, I have to make more effort to be good myself. — Preah Maha Ghosananda. 8 April 2024
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- Heart drifting like white clouds from beginning to end—a thing of mystery is this heart. — Otagaki Rengetsu. 5 April 2024
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- Clear mind is like the full moon in the sky. Sometimes clouds come and cover it, but the moon is always behind them. Clouds go away, then the moon shines brightly. So don’t worry about clear mind: it is always there. When thinking comes, behind it is clear mind. When thinking goes, there is only clear mind. Thinking comes and goes, comes and goes. You must not be attached to the coming or the going. — Zen Master Seung Sahn. 3 April 2024
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- And when the Blessed One had passed away, simultaneously with his Parinibbana, Sakka, king of the gods, spoke this stanza: “Transient are all compounded things, Subject to arise and vanish; Having come into existence they pass away; Good is the peace when they forever cease.” — Mahāparinibbāṇa Sutta. 2 April 2024
